Hearing the Word …

… ‘The Hebrew Bible’ and ‘The Art of Bible Translation’ Review: An Ear for Scripture - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

It has to be said that this thrashing is long overdue and mightily refreshing. Anyone who has had to suffer through (to borrow Mr. Alter’s phrase) “ungainly and banal” scriptural readings, whether in church or synagogue, will have a queasily intimate understanding of the “gnashing of teeth” that Christian scripture describes. Thus, in the Jewish Publication Society’s version of Genesis 1:16, we read that “God made the two great lights, the greater light to dominate the day and the lesser light to dominate the night.” But, as Mr. Alter notes, the verb “dominate” “entirely wrecks the beautiful cadence of the Hebrew” and, worse, demonstrates “a manifestly tin ear to the connotations of the word”—for “dominate” is drawn from a political context and these days can suggest “sexual perversion with whip and boots.” By a slight alteration—“dominion of day” and “dominion of night”—he rescues the verse and restores its original cadence.